Honorary Awards: Honoring contributions to the science of geophysics:

Scott Mackay

Scott MacKay is currently a geophysical consultant in Denver, Colorado. His career began after obtaining a Master’s in Geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines and joining Tenneco Oil an exploration geophysicist in Denver. There, he developed structural and stratigraphic plays in the Williston and other Rocky Mountain Basins. He later joined the company’s Special Projects group in Houston as an advisor, integrating the efforts of multidisciplinary teams in areas including the North Slope, Offshore Africa, North Sea, Colombia, and the Gulf of Mexico. Some of his final work at Tenneco resulted in him being featured in a National Geographic article for his work on the last ANWR well in Alaska. After ten years with Tenneco, he joined what is now Schlumberger-SLB as a research geophysicist in Houston, developing advanced methods for depth imaging and velocity estimation. He was quickly appointed Manager of R&D for SLB in Denver where he also served as world-wide coordinator for Depth Imaging, Time-lapse (4D) Reservoir Characterization, and Multicomponent Imaging. During his time with Schlumberger, Scott became a Schlumberger Advisor, was granted five U.S. patents, and obtained his PhD in Geophysics from the University of Houston. He also published on applying innovative and practical solutions to seismic imaging issues. In particular, he is credited with developing the definitive approach to mitigating the water-velocity variation problem in deep-water regimes.

Scott became an independent consultant in 2003, working domestic and international exploration and development projects. He began as the advisor to the Subdirector of PEMEX, where he leveraged his fluency in Spanish by working with interpreters in all the divisions on prospect evaluation. Currently, he advises, mentors, and trains O&G professionals in applying appropriate seismic imaging technologies and interpretation techniques for play evaluation and risk reduction. He also specializes in managing anisotropic depth imaging projects, spanning complex structure to subtle resource plays, in order to quantify reservoir quality using advanced attributes. Scott still publishes, and a recent article described critical factors in employing machine-learning methods in the estimation of hydrocarbon production using seismic and reservoir-model properties.

Les Denham

Les Denham was born in Parramatta, NSW, Australia, and graduated from the University of Sydney with a double major in Geology and Geophysics. For seven years he worked in petroleum exploration in Australia before spending a year in Antarctica as a glaciologist.

He joined the Geological Survey of Greenland, then Seiscom Delta in Indonesia. Seiscom moved him to the Philippines after two years, then transferred him to Houston in 1978. In 1985, he joined Newmont Oil Company. In 1988 Les partnered with Dave Agarwal to form Interactive Interpretation & Training, Inc. This partnership survived until Dave retired in 2012. Since then, Les has worked as a consultant.

He has been an active member of SEG since 1968, and of GSH since 1985. He volunteered for Geoscience Day 2007 to 2015, and has volunteered at the Geoscience Center since 2013, where he has been librarian since 2017.

Les has written many technical papers and a monograph published by the SEG in 2020, winning the Grover E Murray Award from the GCAGS twice. He has worked south of the Antarctic Circle, north of the Arctic Circle, on the Equator, and in many places in between. He has analyzed data in at least 24 countries.

Lifetime Awards: Honoring member contributions to the GSH

Klaas Koster

Klaas Koster is a Fellow and the Worldwide Chief Geophysicist at Occidental. In this role, he oversees the geophysical function and directs Oxy’s team of geophysical experts in acquisition, processing, and quantitative interpretation. Klaas brings three decades of technical and management experience to his current role. Before joining Occidental in 2016, Klaas was the Forties Development Manager at Apache and later went on to build Murphy’s technical capabilities. Klaas started his career in 1989 at Amoco’s research center in Tulsa, working as an acquisition and processing geophysicist, and then worked for Shell as a quantitative interpretation geophysicist and time-lapse seismic specialist in The Hague, Stavanger, Perth and New Orleans offices. Klaas holds a Doctorate in Applied Geophysics from Delft University and is a past-president and life member of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists.

Peter Duncan

Peter M. Duncan is President and CEO of MicroSeismic, Inc. a Houston based geophysical service company specializing in microseismic monitoring for oilfield, environmental and geotechnical engineering applications. He holds a Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Toronto. Duncan was 2003-04 President of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and 2019-20 President of the Geophysical Society of Houston (GSH). Duncan was the Fall 2008 SEG/AAPG Distinguished Lecturer speaking on the subject of Passive Seismic at 45 venues around the world. He is an Honorary Member of SEG, GSH, the Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (CSEG), and the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE). He received the Enterprise Champion Award from the Houston Business Journal in 2010, the World Oil Innovative Thinker Award in 2011, and was the 2013 EY National Energy Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2014 he received the Virgil Kauffman Gold Medal from SEG.